A few words from a professional procrastinator

It’s been six years since I started playing Final Fantasy XI when it was released for the PS2 and I haven’t looked back. I was a mac user and I wasn’t exactly in the mood to jump on to the MMO bandwagon by getting a PC so I was very excited when Square-Enix announced that they would be releasing their MMO on consoles as well. I find this MMO unique since players from different countries play on the same server but play on different consoles (PS3, PS2, Xbox360, PC). No other game other than WOW (World of Warcraft) does this (PC and Mac compatible).

It was difficult as first as the game was designed largely for people to team up in order to advance to the next level. I inched my way through the game and now it’s time to release another version of the game.

This week at E3 in Los Angeles, Square-Enix has released new videos of the game and a possible release date of Q4 2010 for the PC and PS3.

I’ve been playing the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI since it came out on the PS2 in 2004 up until today. The prospect of testing the next MMO coming out next year is quite exciting. Interested individuals can sign up here. The game is expected to be released for PCs and the PS3 sometime in 2010.

Square-Enix has updated the FF XIV page with new information on the mobs of the world of Eorzea. If the screenshots they are providing are in-game then this would be really nice to play.

Morbol

Morbol in action. This looks like the biggest version or the Marlboro yet.CactuarA crafting in Eorzea is known as a Disciple of the Hand as part of a Lifestyle.Traveling by ship at night when it is raining is never safe.Sights of EorzeaEorzea looks more beautiful than Vana’diel. The way the world has been designed looks as if it has been lifted from the real world. Let’s see what this world looks like when it comes out in 2010.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again where Final Fantasy fans gather together in California and see what’s coming to world of Vana’diel. This time it was held in Hollywood. Although personally it seemed that last year’s event in Anaheim was much better but still both events were completely sold out.

This year didn’t bring any surprise to the players since it had already been announced the three paid “upgrades” to the game. As opposed to the Wings of the Goddess expansion which took players to the past. This series will take us to the future.

EGM Editor in Chief James Mielke went to Hollywood and got an exclusive interview with the creators of the game.

Each chapter is a paid update. Unlike previous expansions which had entire story lines and new jobs and areas, these “chapters” are too short to require the printing of new discs and too long to be included in the monthly updates to the game.

Over in Kotaku.com, it could either be a Protoss (Starcraft) or a Warcraft Death Knight. What could it be? Part of enigma included this even more enigmatic purple penguin.

Now I’m confused. Over the past week it had been speculated that it could be Diablo III. But hopes were quickly dashed as of today when the image now looks more dark knighty protossy instead of the big red diablo. So what is going on?

Could this just only be the hype of the final announcement when Starcraft II will hit store shelves? Another Warcraft game either as an expansion to the MMO or Warcraft IV? I think it will reveal a Starcraft MMO other than the Starcraft RTS coming out later this year.

Either way we’ll know what this all means pretty soon. Anyone going to Blizzcon 2008?

The first story is not exactly a rumor. The next installment of Phantasy Star will be on the PSP. Wouldn’t it be great if you can actually have an MMO on your handheld and if you don’t, you can always play the single player game. Much like one of the first (if not ground breaking) MMOs on a console and that being the Dreamcast.

Will Shenmue actually make the light of day? Now this is really a rumor. I have a copy of Shenmue on the original Dreamcast and missed Shenmue II on the Xbox (which I regret). So news of this game coming out really has me very excited. But based on how earlier incarnations of this series ended up, I highly doubt it will actually come out. But I’d like to be wrong on this one.

“At any given time, as many as half a million Chinese gamers are completing quests and gathering such assets as virtual gold pieces to sell off for real money. They toil in Internet cafes and in makeshift computer labs, sometimes sleeping on cots in nearby dormitories in shifts.”

Gold farming or Gil Farming in World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy Online respectively is big business. As a player of MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) I hate these farmers. They are the worst of the lot. What they are doing is a clear violation of the service agreement of the game and should be banned for life. They ruin the entire gameplay experience and drive honest players away. Developers should be aware that these gold farmers bring in what I would like to call “counterfeit money” similar to real life fake money that criminal organizations try to infiltrate into our society which leads into over inflation of products. I’d think that it would be relatively simple on how to find these gold sellers. Just go on line buy a few gil here and there. And once the gil has been sent to you, ban the account immediately. One reason I think that the companies, particularly Blizzard and Square-Enix would be hesistant to ban these accounts on a widespread business would be that they countinue to make money off them. They would still need to pay the monthly service fee and that is a constant flow of money in the bank for them. But generally it’s bad for players.

As a lvl 75 white mage in Final Fantasy, it is only now I can finally earn some decent cash. But with gil sellers abound, it’s hard to make decent cash. For example, there is a “Noble’s Tunic” that I would like to purchase for my character that costs 8.5 million gil. It can easily be obtained if I am able to get some notorious monsters that drop some goodies that I could sell for some decent cash. But some reason, there is a character there 24/7 that does nothing but kill the NM when it pops. A total waste of time. Isn’t it obvious enough that the same character never logs out, is always there, always claims the pop 24/7 is not a gil seller?

Sony Entertainment did an experiment with Everquest 2 which they themselves sold the gold instead of these gold sellers. I have idea if their experiment had any sucess. But Real money trade is a direct violation of the user agreement and therefore those accounts should be banned. And the more that they make, the more they should ban.